A system of program evaluation and the use of feedback as a means of improving service delivery

Agencies providing services to individuals with developmental disabilities must demonstrate quality programing as evidenced through a high level of staff compliance to organizational, licensing, and accreditation standards. In addition, economic and practical considerations impose the need for cost-effective procedures for evaluating and improving staff performance. This study utilized a combination of checklists, as an evaluative tool to measure staff performance, and private feedback to improve staff performance. A multiple baseline design was used to determine the effects of providing staff with (a) orientation training, (b) task-analyzed checklists of job skills, (c) private feedback from the agency trainer, and (d) private feedback from their immediate supervisor. Results indicate that training alone does not ensure competency; checklists alone do not ensure competency; private feedback from trainers improves competency; and private feedback from direct supervisors improves competency even further.     

Reading practices,reading skills,and cognitive growth in adulthood

Reading is assumed to play an important role in the development of literate persons in that it is consciousness-altering activity. The manner by which reading contributes to development is unclear, however, and has been debated by social scientists for some years. Despite the importance of reading in adult life, only recently have researchers devoted significant attention to what and how well adults read. Less scrutiny has been directed toward understanding what sorts of benefits may be gained from reading in adult life and how reading contributes to adult development. This paper describes adults' reading practices across a variety of social contexts, the types of skills employed in these practices, and how reading may contribute to adult cognitive development. Implications deriving from a better understanding of adult reading practices and skills across the life span are discussed.     

Ecological influences in youth crisis shelters: Effects of social density and length of stay on youth problem behaviors

For 472 consecutive days we monitored the number of youths residing in a crisis shelter for adolescents, the average length of stay for the youths residing in the shelter on each day, and the number of problem behaviors occurring within the shelter on a daily basis. We analyzed these data using a combination of time series and logistic regression techniques to fit a model that would predict the occurrence of a problem behavior on any given day. After controlling for significant time trends in the data, our results indicate that both the number of youths in the shelter and the proportion of youths who have resided in the shelter longer than 14 days are significantly associated with a problem behavior occurring on any given day. The number of youths in the shelter and the probability of a problem behavior occurring correlated significantly. However, as the proportion of youths who resided in the shelter longer than 14 days increased, the probability of a problem behavior occurring decreased.     

The Tree of Life: Universal and Cultural Features of Folkbiological Taxonomies and Inductions

Two parallel studies were performed with members of very different cultures—industrialized American and traditional Itzaj-Mayan—to investigate potential universal and cultural features of folkbiological taxonomies and inductions. Specifically, we examined how individuals organize natural categories into taxonomies, and whether they readily use these taxonomies to make inductions about those categories. The results of the first study indicate that there is a cultural consensus both among Americans and the Itzaj in their taxonomies of local mammal species, and that these taxonomies resemble and depart from a corresponding scientific taxonomy in similar ways. However, cultural differences are also shown, such as a greater differentiation and more ecological considerations in Itzaj taxonomies. In a second study, Americans and the Itzaj used their taxonomies to guide similarity- and typicality-based inductions. These inductions converge and diverge crossculturally and regarding scientific inductions where their respective taxonomies do. These findings reveal some universal features of folkbiological inductions, but they also reveal some cultural features such as diversity-based inductions among Americans, and ecologically based inductions among the Itzaj. Overall, these studies suggest that while building folkbiological taxonomies and using them for folkbiological inductions is a universal competence of human cognition there are also important cultural constraints on that competence.     

ANTECEDENT INFLUENCES ON BEHAVIOR DISORDERS

The influence of antecedent events on behavior disorders has been relatively understudied by applied behavior analysts. This lack of research may be due to a focus on consequences as determinants of behavior and a historical disagreement on a conceptual framework for describing and interpreting antecedent variables. We suggest that antecedent influences can be described using terms derived from basic behavioral principles and that their functional properties can be adequately interpreted as discriminative and establishing operations. A set of studies on assessment and treatment of behavior disorders was selected for review based on their relevance to the topic of antecedent events. These studies were categorized as focusing on assessment of antecedent events, antecedent treatments for behavior disorders maintained by either positive or negative reinforcement, and special cases of antecedent events in behavior disorders. Some directions for future research on antecedent influences in the analysis and treatment of behavior disorders are discussed.     

Gender Differences in Perceptions of How Others Are Affected by Self-Disclosure of Achievement

Three experiments were conducted at two east coast Universities with primarily Caucasian students participating. In experiment one, college students disclosed that they scored in the 91st percentile or in the top half on an intelligence-related test to a female student who had scored either in the 42nd percentile (low-achieving) or the 92nd percentile (high-achieving) on the same test. Women who disclosed modestly (top half) judged that the low-achieving other felt better than women who disclosed immodestly (91st percentile). Also, women who disclosed modestly judged that the other liked them more than women who disclosed immodestly. These effects did not occur with men. In experiment two, college students disclosed that they scored in the 91st percentile or in the top half on an intelligence-related test to either a male or a female student who had scored in the 42nd percentile on the same test. Women who disclosed modestly judged that a female peer liked them more and felt more intelligent and confident than did women who disclosed immodestly. In contrast, men who disclosed immodestly judged that a female peer liked them more than did men who disclosed modestly. Regardless of the peer's gender, women judged that peers felt worse about themselves, were less happy and more upset when subjects had disclosed immodestly. In contrast, men judged that the peer felt better about himself or herself, was happier and less upset when the subjects had disclosed immodestly. In Experiment 3, male and female participants rated the intelligence-related test as equally difficult and rated doing well on them as equally important. Participants also indicated that doing well was equally important to males and females. Thus, ego-involvement is ruled out as an alternative explanation. These findings support the interpretation of previous research that women may choose to disclose modestly in an effort to be better liked or to protect the other's feelings.     

LISTENING TO NICOTINE:

Abstract— In recent years, theoretical models of drug motivation and drug dependence have downplayed the role of withdrawal symptoms in the maintenance of addiction. During this same period, strong links between drug use and measures of negative affect have been uncovered in empirical research. In this article we examine these trends in the context of research on smoking. Evidence is presented from two recent studies on smoking relapse that highlight the intimate connection between withdrawal symptomatology and negative affect Specifically, these studies reveal that (a) single-occasion measures of withdrawal symptoms or other markers of physical dependence do not contribute incremental validity in preceding relapse relative to measures of negative affect (b) the trajectory of withdrawal symptoms is highly idiosyncratic, (c) exacerbations cannot be tightly coupled with pharmacological events. (d) the temporal dynamics of withdrawal reflect fluctuations in negative affect, and (e) differences in the trajectory of withdrawal symptoms index relapse vulnerability. We conclude that a broadened view of withdrawal recognizing its probable affective bases will enhance its explanatory power and suggest new treatment strategies.