The current study builds on a small but growing body of research evaluating the formal and functional characteristics of emerging problem behavior before it becomes harmful and requires costly treatment. The researchers tested 21 preschool children's sensitivity to establishing operations that commonly precede severe problem behavior. Sensitivity tests were embedded in a small group play context to optimize safety, efficiency, and ecological validity. The tests screened several levels of problem-behavior severity as well as the presence of adaptive alternatives (i.e., communication) to problem behavior. Overall, outcomes suggested sources of reinforcement for minor- and moderate-severity problem behavior in 86% of children. Only 17% of children exhibiting problem behavior also engaged in appropriate requests in the same condition(s) as problem behavior. The present data are compared to published functional analyses of severe behavior. The results are discussed as a preliminary step towards a function-based model of risk identification and behavioral prevention of severe problem behavior. 相似文献
Research indicates the presence of an age-related pictorial processing deficit, for which the elderly may attempt to compensate
through the use of relational information. Cognitive asynchrony theory, a recent synthetic formulation which unites elements
of the generalized slowing hypothesis, environmental support theory, and the item-specific/relational information distinction,
has proven useful in a number of experiments in explaining these aspects of visual cognitive aging. The present experiments
tested this theoretical formulation under high processing demand conditions in both the relational and the pictorial/item-specific
realm. Young and older adults yielded a complex pattern of results consistent with the cognitive asynchrony synthesis of these
theoretical considerations. The present experiments add to the growing body of findings indicating that the cognitive subsystems
of memory decline at different rates, that the differences in cognitive processing between young and older adults tend to
be more quantitative than qualitative, and that the global age-related memory deficits of popular belief are in fact relatively
circumscribed and specific.
This research was supported by grant AG11605 from the National Institute on Aging, and by a grant from the College of Science
and Mathematics, California State University. 相似文献
Values are a central personality construct and the importance of studying them has been well established. To encourage researchers to integrate measures of values into their studies, brief and ultrabrief instruments were developed to recapture the 10 values measured by the 40-item Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ; Schwartz, 2003Schwartz, S. H. (2003). A proposal for measuring value orientations across nations. In Questionnaire development report of the European Social Survey (pp. 259–319). Retrieved from http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/index.php?option=com_docman&;task=doc_view&;gid=126&;Itemid=80[Google Scholar]). Rigorous psychometric procedures based on separate derivation (N = 38,049) and evaluation (N = 29,143) samples yielded 10- and 20-item measures of values, which proved to be successful at capturing the patterns and magnitude of correlations associated with the original PVQ. These instruments should be useful to researchers who would like to incorporate a values scale into their study but do not have the space to administer a longer measure. 相似文献
Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) is associated with elevated levels of substance abuse, but the cognitive linkages
involved have been little explored. The present study builds upon earlier work showing that more gestalt, as opposed to feature-intensive,
styles of processing are conductive to substance abuse, especially in those with ADHD symptoms. The work reported here indicates
that a protective factor against substance abuse may lie in relatively efficient heuristic processing, especially synthetic
or inferential heuristic processing, but further demonstrates that those with ADHD symptoms tend to have poorer abilities
in this regard, even at the subclinical, nondiagnosed level. Results are discussed in terms of the gestalt/featureintensive
processing theory of cognition. 相似文献
This study developed an HIV risk reduction intervention for people living with HIV (PLWH) obtaining care at primary healthcare clinics in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa by (1) conducting elicitation research to understand the dynamics of risk behaviour among PLWH, (2) modifying an existing HIV risk reduction intervention based on research findings and (3) conducting a pilot study to evaluate feasibility, acceptability and fidelity of the modified intervention implemented by trained lay counsellors at a rural clinic in KwaZulu-Natal. A total of 61 healthcare providers and 77 HIV+ patients from four primary healthcare clinics participated in 14 focus groups and 20 individual interviews to identify informational, motivational and behavioural skills (IMB) factors contributing to PLWH's sexual risk behaviour. Elicitation research findings were incorporated into a revised version of Options for Health, an evidence-based risk reduction intervention for PLWH in clinical care. In a 5-day training, lay counsellors learned strategies to address IMB barriers to safer sex identified in elicitation research. The revised intervention, which was implemented by six counsellors with 39 patients, was feasible to implement, acceptable to patients and counsellors, and implemented with good fidelity. This study makes an important contribution towards development of a theory-based HIV risk reduction intervention for PLWH linking prevention with treatment in South Africa. 相似文献
It is widely acknowledged that metaphysical assumptions, commitments and presuppositions play an important role in science. Yet according to the empiricist there is no place for metaphysics as traditionally understood in the scientific enterprise. In this paper I aim to take a first step towards reconciling these seemingly irreconcilable claims. In the first part of the paper I outline a conception of metaphysics and its relation to science that should be congenial to empiricists, motivated by van Fraassen’s work on ‘stances’. There has been a considerable about of recent work devoted to van Fraassen’s ‘stance’ view, but it has not on the whole been noticed that the view has the potential to motivate a general empiricist conception of the relation between science and metaphysics. In the second and third sections I discuss two examples from biology to illustrate this conception: metaphysical punctuationism, and its relation to and influence on the thesis of punctuated equilibrium; and dialectical biology as defended by Levins and Lewontin.
The relation of seven coping dimensions to substance (tobacco, alcohol, marijuana) use was tested with a sample of 1,668 participants assessed at mean age 12.5 years and two yearly follow-ups. An associative latent-growth model showed one index of engagement (behavioral coping) to be inversely related to initial level of adolescent use and growth over time in peer use. Three indices of disengagement (anger coping, helpless coping, and hangout coping) were positively related to initial levels of peer use and adolescent use and to growth in adolescent use. Life stress was positively related to initial levels for peer use and adolescent use and to growth in adolescent use. Moderation tests indicated that effects of coping were significantly greater at higher level of stress; behavioral coping buffered the effects of disengagement. Effects of life stress were greater for girls than for boys. Results are discussed with reference to mechanisms of coping-substance use relationships. 相似文献