The effects of contingent music and differential reinforcement on infantile colic

Infantile Colic is a behavioral syndrome characterized by paroxysms of excessive crying and increased motor activity, hypertonicity of the musculature, excessive flatus and erratic sleeping and feeding patterns. Ten to 40% of all infants are diagnosed as having Colic. The medical evidence to date does not justify any conclusions regarding the etiology or treatment of Colic. Typically, parents are advised to simply wait until Colic has run its course which is often 3-4 months. The behavioral program reported here was designed to increase behavior that competed with crying by reinforcing quiet alertness with music and parental attention. Concurrently, it attempted to inhibit excessive crying by a brief time-out procedure. A group of 8 infants diagnosed as Infant Colic were included in this study. The dependent variable, crying, was measured through direct observations based on hourly samples involving 30 observations of 2-min intervals. The independent variable consisted of a behavioral treatment package. A within-S reversal design was used to assess the functional properties of the treatment. The results show that across all 8 infants the introduction of the treatment package led to a substantial decrease in excessive crying of about 75% of the initial baseline. Further, a functional relationship was identified between the treatment and excessive crying behavior: crying decreased when the treatment was initially introduced, it resumed when the treatment was withdrawn and decreased again when the treatment was reinstated.     

Ecology of depression in late childhood and early adolescence: a profile of daily states and activities

This study investigated daily states and time use patterns associated with depression. Four hundred eighty-three 5th to 9th graders reported on their experience when signalled by pagers at random times. Depressed youth reported more negative affect and social emotions, lower psychological investment, lower energy, and greater variability in affect. These differences were weaker for 5th and 6th graders, suggesting that self-reported feeling states are a poor indicator of depression prior to adolescence. No differences were found in the daily activities of depressed youths nor in the amount of time spent alone, but depressed youths experienced other people as less friendly and more often reported wanting to be alone, especially when with their families. They also spent less time in public places and more time in their bedrooms. Finally, depressed boys, but not girls, spent much less time with friends, particularly of the same sex, suggesting that social isolation is more strongly associated with depression for boys.     

Changing contexts and the field of community psychology

Conclusion The legacy of the Swampscott conference 25 years ago is palpable. The scientific accomplishments have been substantial. The four agendas I have presented for the future development of the field depend upon psychologists as individuals and psychologists as participants in our departments, colleges, universities, professional societies, and peer review panels to reduce the constraints that limit the definition and study of psychological phenomena in community settings (Schneider, 1990). As these constraints are addressed, new social norms can be established to expand and diversify the research process. There are some explicit positive side effects that can occur. A new working social structure can be created for how universities and communities can be resources for each other.The four topics I have presented are agendas for keeping at the task of generating active and expanding scientific traditions. These topics when addressed in the context of collaboration with other disciplines and citizens can develop an empirical base of shared wisdom about how to carry out community psychology research. In these ways the benefits of community psychology research can become more empowering for the public and more and more systemic for the scholar.These comments were presented as an Invited Address at the 2nd annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, June 8, 1990, Dallas, Texas.The following persons took time to read and comment on earlier drafts of these comments. I have benefited very much from their appraisals. Eileen Altman, Daniel Cervone, Seeley Chandler-Kelly, Nancy Dassoff, Penny Foster-Fishman, Steve Goldston, Peter Graves, Kenneth Heller, Robert E. Hess, David Henry, Ira Iscoe, Chris Keys, Benjamin Kleinmuntz, Ed Lichtenstein, Philip Mann, Kyoung Oh, Julian Rappaport, Dan Romer, Lonnie R. Snowden, Joseph P. Stokes, Edison J. Trickett, Abe Wandersman, and Marc Alan Zimmerman.     

An MMPI-based empirical model of malingering and deception

The empirically-based model of malingering and deception described by Rogers (1984b) was operationalized using MMPI and clinical interview data. Subjects (N = 159) were patients committed to an inpatient forensic hospital as ‘Incompetent to Stand Trial’ or ‘Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity’. Inter-rater reliability was acceptable for the 11 criteria used to define response styles. Each subject was categorized into one of five response style groups: ‘Reliable’, ‘Malingering’, ‘Defensive’, ‘Irrelevant’, or ‘Unclassifiable’. Factor analysis of the rating criteria yielded four factors, three of which are comparable to the assigned groups, providing some validation for the constructs underlying these groups.     

Immediate and Delayed Effects of Imposed Postfeedback Delays in Computerized Programmed Instruction

The Psychological Record - A recent study (Crosbie & Kelly, 1994) showed that brief externally imposed postfeedback delays improved performance in computerized programmed instruction. The...     

Relationship-Centered Counseling: A Humanistic Model of Integration

Relationship-centered counseling is a development in the client-centered tradition. It represents a humanistic integration that gives primacy to the humanizing and counseling relationship, conceives technical expertise as the instrumental extension of relationship, and affirms the necessity for an in-depth synthesis of both for effective counseling. Significant findings from contemporary process and outcome research are presented as supportively consistent with the relationship-centered integration, which has implications for research, practice, and training.     

REDUCING ESCAPE BEHAVIOR AND INCREASING TASK COMPLETION WITH FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING,EXTINCTION AND RESPONSE CHAINING

The effects of functional communication training, extinction, and response chaining on 3 subjects' escape-maintained aberrant behavior were evaluated using a multielement design. Functional communication training consisted of teaching subjects a verbal response that was functionally equivalent to their aberrant behavior. Subjects initially were allowed to escape from a task contingent on the trained verbal response. In subsequent treatment phases, escape was contingent on the trained verbal response plus the completion of the specified number of steps in the task (response chaining). The number of steps was increased until a subject completed the task to obtain a break. Results showed that the treatment reduced rates of aberrant behavior and that the chaining procedure was effective in decreasing the availability of escape.     

Life after Trauma: Personality and Daily Life Experiences of Traumatized People

In this study, we explored differences in personality and daily life experiences of traumatized (n= 26) versus nontraumatized (n= 30) college students. Study participants completed a variety of personality measures as well as a 28–day experience sampling study assessing daily activities, emotions, and physical health. Although not differing on general demographics, traumatized individuals reported more trait anxiety and lower self–esteem than nontraumatized individuals. They scored higher on Neuroticism, were more introverted, and were less emotionally stable than nontraumatized participants. Traumatized individuals also reported more cognitive disturbances, emotional blunting, and interpersonal withdrawal. They did not report being more depressed, but did endorse cognitive styles associated with heightened risk for depression. Earlier age of trauma was associated with more pathological outcomes: lower self–esteem and psychological well–being, more anxiety, more pessimism, and emotional constriction of positive mood. We compare this symptom profile to that of posttraumatic stress disorder.     

Evaluation of a “mental effort” hypothesis for correlations between cortical metabolism and intelligence

Previous research indicates that low scores on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) test are associated with increased cortical glucose utilization during problem solving. We hypothesized that previous results may reflect the neurophysiological consequences of patterns of effort requirements; that is, high-effort expenditure from lower aptitude participants (for whom the problems are hard) and low-effort expenditure from higher aptitude participants (for whom the problems are easy). In this experiment, positron emission tomography (PET) data were gathered on participants (N = 28) who solved easy and hard problems that were tailored to the participants' own ability levels, thereby eliminating aptitude group differences in effort requirements. Contrary to previous results, high aptitude was associated with high cortical glucose use. Average aptitude participants showed diminished glucose use in the hard condition. A significant Group X Condition X Hemisphere Effect was also noted, with greater right hemisphere activation in the hard condition for the high-aptitude group. These results demonstrate that the relation of cerebral glucose use and cognitive ability is sensitive to participant and task selection.