Assessment of incarcerated juvenile delinquents: Agreement across raters and approaches to psychopathology

The purpose of the current study was to examine the agreement across three informants (youth, teacher, caretaker) when rating behaviors of incarcerated juvenile delinquents. Furthermore, the agreement between a dimensional approach (Child Behavior Checklist) and a categorical approach (DSM-III-R) of assessing behavior was examined. Fifty-two delinquent youth were assessed with a structured interview. In addition, the youth, teacher, and caretaker completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The results indicated significant correlations across the teacher and caretaker for externalizing types of problems. The youth report form of the CBCL did not correspond to either adult informant. However, the ratings by the teacher and caretaker were related to externalizing types of problems, primarily hyperactivity/inattention, derived from the structured interview with the delinquent. The results suggest that, in the psychological assessment of incarcerated juvenile delinquents, agreement across informants is dependent on multiple factors, including type of behavior assessed and the approach utilized in assessment.This work was supported, in part, by the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council of Georgia, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.     

Issues and options in literacy training

When was the last time you saw a job application with no spelling or grammatical errors? Basic skill deficiencies among people at all levels of business are forcing companies to develop innovative ways of compensating for and correcting the problem. What follows is a summary of literacy training strategies and suggestions for implementation.     

Analysis of the elements of attention: A neuropsychological approach

A model for conceptualizing the components or elements of attention is presented. The model substitutes for the diffuse and global concept of attention a group of four processes and links them to a putative system of cerebral structures. Data in support of the model are presented; they are derived from neuropsychological test scores obtained from two samples, the first consisting of 203 adult neuropsychiatric patients and normal control subjects, and the second, an epidemiologically-based sample of 435 elementary school children. Principal components analyses of test scores from these two populations yielded similar results: a set of independent elements of attention that are assayed by different tests. This work presents a heuristic for clinical research in which the measurement of attention is essential.     

Sex-typing of play and psychological adjustment in young children: An empirical investigation

Traditional assumptions that sex-role conformity is positively related to psychological adjustment in young children have not, to date, been examined empirically. Seventy-four preschool children, 37 boys and 37 girls aged 3 to 5, were observed over a 3-month period to determine their frequency of play in male and female sex-typed activities during the free-play period in their classrooms. Teacher ratings on the Kohn and Rosman Symptom Checklist and Social Competence Scale were correlated with individuals' rates of play in male and female preferred activities (M and F scales, respectively). Results indicated that boys' play with male-preferred toys was related to high scores on the aggression/defiance dimension of the Symptom Checklist, while boys who scored highly on play in female-preferred activities received high scores on the Social Competence dimension labeled conforming to classroom rules. For girls, play with malepreferred toys was negatively related to the apathy/withdrawal dimension of the Symptom Checklist. These results do not confirm the hypothesis that sex-typed behavior is positively related to adjustment, and they suggest that for both sexes, play in opposite sex-typed activities may contribute positively to children's social and academic functioning in the classroom.This research was supported in part by Grant No. MH25751-06 from the National Institute of Mental Health, and by a grant from the Programme de Formation de Chercheurs et d'Action Concertée, Ministére de l'Education, Gouvernement du Québec. Portions of this paper were presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, April 1981.     

Factors affecting entrapment in escalating conflicts: The importance of timing

Entrapping conflicts are those in which individuals continue to invest their resources—even in seemingly losing propositions-in large part to justify previous unfilled expenditures. It has been demonstrated that individuals define their motivation for investing very differently at the various stages of an entrapping conflict. One implication of this motivational dynamic is that various factors may differentially affect degree of entrapment (i.e., amount invested), depending upon the point in time at which they are introduced. The present studies were designed to test this notion. All subjects were given an initial monetary stake and had the opportunity to win more by taking part in an entrapping investment situation. In Experiment 1, half the subjects were provided with a payoff chart that made salient the costs associated with investing (Highcost salience condition) whereas half were not (Low-cost salience condition). Moreover, for half of the subjects the payoff chart was introduced before they were asked to invest (Early condition) whereas for the other half it was introduced after they had invested a considerable portion of their resources (Late condition). Entrapment was lower in the High salience-Early than in the Low salience-Early condition. However, there was no difference between groups in the Late condition. In Experiment 2, the perceived presence of an audience interacted with personality variables related to face-saving to effect entrapment. When the audience was described as “experts in decision making,” subjects high in public self-consciousness (or social anxiety) became less entrapped than those low on these dimensions. When the audience consisted of individuals who “wished simply to observe the experimental procedure,” however, high public self-consciousness (or social anxiety) individuals were significantly more entrapped than lows. Moreover, these interaction effects occurred when the audience was introduced late, but not early, into the entrapment situation. Taken together, these (and other) findings suggest that economic factors are more influential determinants of behavior in the earlier stages of an entrapping conflict, whereas face-saving variables are more potent in the later phases. Alternative explanations are discussed.     

The salience of the self in responses to inequity

Previous research has shown that people strive to conform with the standards of significant others in distributive justice. The present research was concerned with the role of attention to the self in the same paradigm. If people are motivated to personally evaluate their own behavior as fair, then self-focus should result in heightened attempts to redress an overpayment inequity. After the subject's criterion of a fair wage was assessed, they were paid either that amount or double it. Orthogonal to this manipulation, subjects were either made objectively self-aware (OSA) or not, by the presence or absence of a mirror. Consistent with the hypothesis, overpaid OSA subjects did more work, but of a poorer quality, than overpaid not-OSA subjects. This was taken as evidence of more zealous attempts to restore a sense of equity, implicating a greater personal need to eliminate the injustice when the discrepancy between pay level and a personal standard of fairness was made more prominent to the self.     

The effects of self-exposure instructions on agoraphobic outpatients

Nineteen agoraphobic outpatients were randomly assigned to four sessions of either (1) Exposure: planning and discussion of exposure homework tasks requiring patients to enter and remain in phobic situations hitherto avoided; or (2) Control: discussion of marital, family and social difficulties and strategies for dealing with these.A small but significant effect was found at post-test and at one month follow-up in favour of the exposure condition. It is suggested that this variable should be controlled in future relevant experiments and is worth including as an inexpensive expedient of active treatment of phobias.     

Skill-set,success outcome,and mania as determinants of the illusion of control

The illusion of control, the tendency for individuals to approach chance tasks with skill-appropriate strategies, was studied. Subjects premeasured on a mania scale were classified as either high (HM) or low (LM) in mania. In the first phase of the study, HM and LM subjects performed 30 trials on either a skill (verbal associates) or chance (coin-toss) task and were given either 20, 50, or 80% success feedback. After Task 1 was completed, subjects filled out an attribution questionnaire. In the final phase of the study, subjects anticipated 30 more trials either on a skill or chance task. Subjects' predicted successes were measured. It was hypothesized that predicted successes on anticipated skill and chance tasks would be affected more by outcomes on a previous skill task than by outcomes on a previous chance task. The results for the anticipated skill task directly supported the hypothesis. On the anticipated chance task, the hypothesis was confirmed for HM subjects only. The results are discussed in terms of how previous skill experiences may induce a set to control ungovernable situations for individuals with manic reactions.     

THE REDUCTION OF STEALING IN SECOND GRADERS USING A GROUP CONTINGENCY1

Three classes of second graders served as subjects in this study of the effects of two types of intervention programs upon stealing: (1) an antistealing lecture with no specific contingency implied, and (2) a direct group contingency applied, whereby children were rewarded with (a) extra free time for no thefts, (b) allowed normal free time if stolen items were returned, and (c) punished with loss of free time if stolen items were not returned. A multiple-baseline design across the three classes showed the group contingency to be effective in reducing stealing behavior; the anti-stealing lecture was ineffective.