Coherency in children's discourse

We provide evidence that the capacity of young children to engage in social interaction exceeds that suggested by Piaget (1926). Rather than being collective monologues, the conversations between the subjects of this study (twin boys) were dialogues: the children attended to one another's utterances and provided relevant responses. This was observed for conversations which were referentially based as well as for sound play exchanges. This is not to say that the children experienced no difficulty in sustaining cooperative discourse. It could take a speaker several turns to secure the attention of the coconversationalist and establish a discourse topic.     

Effects of response-shock interval and shock intensity on free-operant avoidance responding in the pigeon

Two experiments investigated free-operant avoidance responding with pigeons using a treadle-pressing response. In Experiment I, pigeons were initially trained on a free-operant avoidance schedule with a response-shock interval of 32 sec and a shock-shock interval of 10 sec, and were subsequently exposed to 10 values of the response-shock parameter ranging from 2.5 to 150 sec. The functions relating response rate to response-shock interval were similar to the ones reported by Sidman in his 1953 studies employing rats, and were independent of the order of presentation of the response-shock values. Shock rates decreased as response-shock duration increased. In Experiment II, a free-operant avoidance schedule with a response-shock interval of 20 sec and a shock-shock interval of 5 sec was used, and shock intensities were varied over five values ranging from 2 to 32 mA. Response rates increased markedly as shock intensity increased from 2 to 8 mA, but rates changed little with further increases in shock intensity. Shock rates decreased as intensity increased from 2 to 8 mA, and showed little change as intensity increased from 8 to 32 mA.     

Treatment of adolescents in a residential facility: a study of three approaches

This study examined the preferred professional treatment approach at a residential treatment center for socially and emotionally maladjusted girls. The dorm child-care workers and the clinical and educational staff responded to a questionnaire composed of statements reflective of three theoretical orientations: psychoanalytic, person-centered, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. No significant differences were found between the three departments (clinical, school, dorm) for each model of therapy. The results also indicated that the professional personnel employed at this treatment facility were all in agreement that the cognitive-behavioral model of therapeutic intervention is the one preferred. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Words: A computer system for the analysis of content

WORDS is a computer-oriented system for content analysis designed to elicit major content themes without recourse to a priori categorization systems. The system consists of a number of modular and independent programs that the user can configure in any fashion to process the data to be analyzed. This paper presents current information on WORDS, WORDS programs, WORDS systems logic, and on the availability of the system.     

Marital therapy outcome measured by therapist, client, and behavior change

The present research examined marital therapy outcome, in a sample of 88 couples and 22 therapists, through the use of multidimensional criteria from multiple perspectives. Three paper-and-pencil patient self-report instruments were used to measure different aspects of the couple relationship. In addition, therapist post-therapy ratings and objective observer ratings of the couple behavior during therapy were obtained. Past debates about what the "right" criteria might be for measuring therapeutic change prompted our strategy. Special attention was focused on those criteria that could be classified as "inside" or "outside" of the couple relationship. Data analysis revealed a significant relationship between the couples' and therapists' ratings of improvement in therapy. Additionally, husband and wife negative acts (behaviors) in therapy were also significantly correlated with therapists' ratings of improvement. Both statistically significant and clinically significant criteria were employed to evaluate the therapy outcome. Improvement due to therapy as measured by the three self-report instruments varied from 38% to 58%. These differences appeared to stem from the different kinds of information yielded by the specific tests.     

Sex Differences in Associations of Hostile and Non-hostile Criticism with Relationship Quality

Three studies examine whether the type of criticism (hostile vs. non-hostile) or the sex of the person perceiving criticism affect the association of criticism with relationship satisfaction. Analyses of the samples of undergraduates (Studies 1 and 2) and community couples (Study 3) indicated that hostile criticism was negatively associated with relationship functioning, whereas non-hostile criticism was positively associated with relationship functioning. The former association was stronger for women than for men (Studies 2 and 3), while the latter association was stronger for men than for women (Study 1). The results also suggest that hostile criticism may be more strongly associated with negative relationship processes in women than men, whereas non-hostile criticism may be more strongly associated with positive relationship processes for men than women.