Contrasting strategic and Milan therapies

Three related models of therapy are often grouped together as the strategic therapies. These are the brief therapy model associated with the Mental Reseach Institute, approaches developed by Jay Haley and Cloë Madanes, and the model developed by the Milan associates. Controversy exists, however, as to whether the Milan model should be included as a strategic therapy. It appears that the similarities among the three models can mask deeper differences, thus confounding the confusion. This paper contrasts the models in their development, theory, and practice.     

The development of discourse mapping processes: the on-line interpretation of anaphoric expressions

The present research focuses on how children integrate the antecedent of different kinds of anaphor into their on-going interpretation of an utterance, and on the kinds of cues they use to help them to do this. These issues were studied by examining the on-line processing of three types of anaphoric devices—repeated noun phrases, general terms and pronoun anaphors. The data showed that by the age of five, anaphoric mapping processes in general are well-mastered, although all age-groups (5, 7, 10 year olds and adults) found general term anaphors more difficult to interpret. The major developmental differences concerned the processing of anaphoric pronouns. For five year olds, pronouns were primarily interpreted as devices which maintained the thematic subject of the discourse, but when there was no thematic subject they relied primarily on pragmatic plausibility in their assignment of pronominal co-reference. As children get older, they are able to take advantage of the lexical properties of pronouns and all three sources of information—lexical, pragmatic inference and the thematic structure of the discourse—play contributory roles in the assignment of reference to a pronoun.     

Evaluation of a coaching strategy to reduce swimming stroke errors with beginning age-group swimmers

A coaching strategy to decrease errors in swimming strokes with swimmers who had not improved under "standard" coaching procedures was investigated using a multiple baseline design across subjects and swimming strokes. The procedure resulted in a large decrease in errors on swimming strokes during sessions in a training pool. Stimulus generalization of improved performance to normal practice conditions in the regular pool was observed with all but one swimmer. This improvement was maintained during two maintenance phases lasting approximately 2 weeks, as well as under standard coaching conditions during at least a 2-week follow-up. For two swimmers, error rates on one of the strokes showed a gradual increase between the third and fifth week of follow-up, but brief remedial prompting sessions immediately corrected their performance. Some beneficial response generalization to other components of the stroke being trained was observed, but no improvements were found on untrained strokes. The error correction package did not disrupt practice, require excessive amounts of the coach's time, or necessitate the use of cumbersome apparatus. In addition, the coach and the swimmers considered the procedures to be effective, and expressed their willingness to participate in them again in the future.     

Women,Education, Mathematics,and Computers: An Instance of Vocational Incongruence

A course in computer literacy was taken by 16 female elementary education majors specializing in mathematics. Results indicated that the students were dissimilar to the typical female college sample and to predicted occupational groups.     

A CULTURAL DIFFERENCE IN VISUAL MEMORY: ON LE VOIT,ON NE LE VOIT PLUS

Further to the debate between Kearins (1978) and Drinkwater (1978), visual memory skills of Aboriginal and white Australian children were examined using Drinkwater's version of Kim's game with desert Aboriginal and rural white children. Older children remembered more than younger ones, and Aboriginal children recalled more natural objects than white children. There was no difference between the groups in recall of manufactured objects, nor between recall of manufactured and natural objects within each group. Aboriginal children remembered significantly more objects overall than white children when the task was first administered. On a second occasion, after a procedure designed to orient children towards the use of predominantly visual rather than verbal memorising strategies, there was no significant difference between the groups.     

Spatial representations of young children: the role of self- versus adult-directed movement and viewing

The influence of the control of movement and viewing while exploring a novel large-scale environment was assessed. Forty kindergarteners and forty second grade children served in four activity conditions that represented the factorial combination of movement (self vs adult directed) and viewing (self vs adult directed). A significant grade level X movement X viewing interaction revealed that when kindergarteners directed their own movement, estimates of interlocation distances were equivalent whether viewing was self or adult directed. If movement was directed by an adult, kindergarteners estimated interlocation distances more accurately if the adult also directed their viewing than if the children directed their own viewing. Second grade children performed comparably across all four experimental conditions.     

Locus of control and peer status: a scale for Children's Perceptions of Social Interactions

A total of 985 third through sixth grade children participated in the development of a 48-item Locus of Control Scale for Children's Perceptions of Social Interactions (LOC-CPSI). Scores are based on the number of positive, negative, and total social reinforcers a child attributes to his or her own behavior (internal control). A social desirability subscale is included. Reliability coefficients were comparable to or greater than those of existing locus of control measures. Convergent validity was demonstrated by low, significant correlations with other locus of control measures. Internal scores correlated significantly with sociometric measures of popularity and predicted peer status better than other locus of control measures. Theoretical implications and potential clinical application are discussed.     

Male-oriented vs. balanced-as-to-sex thematic apperception tests

Measures of need Achievement, need Affiliation, and need Power were obtained for 124 working managers (62 female, 62 male) using both McClelland's traditional male-oriented thematic apperception test (TAT) and a set of picture cues balanced-as-to-sex. Two-way analysis of variance was performed in a 2 x 2 factorial design (sex by version of TAT). F tests were conducted to test significance at the .05 level. Results indicate both sets are interchangeable in determining need Achievement and need Power distinctions between managerial women and men, Absolute scores are also comparable. For need Affiliation, however, motivation scores are not comparable and interchangeability is clouded, suggesting cue modification may be needed.     

Variations of the Bender-Gestalt Test: implications for training and practice

Although the Bender-Gestalt Visual Motor Test has been a popular and influential clinical assessment instrument for the last half century, authoritative opinion and a substantial research literature are often inconsistent or contradictory. This paper documents variations in designs, administration procedures, forms, and applications to particular populations. A careful review of scoring systems indicates the current status of objective approaches as contrasted with interpretation that is global, intuitive, and subjective. Some implications of these variations and interpretive procedures for training and assessment practice are discussed. The major conclusions of the review are summarized in seven points.