DECREASING BURNED CHILDREN'S PAIN BEHAVIOR: IMPACTING THE TRAUMA OF HYDROTHERAPY

We evaluated the effects of cartoon viewing with the use of a star feedback chart on two burned children's pain behavior during their physical therapy sessions. In addition, the degree to which the observational data corresponded with physical therapists' and mothers' ratings of the children's pain, fear, and cooperativeness was examined. Using a reversal single-subject design, the results showed that the children's pain behavior substantially decreased during experimental treatment sessions compared to their baseline levels. The rating scale data indicated that the physical therapist's and mother's rating of pain, anxiety, and cooperativeness were all correlated significantly with the observational data (p < .05). The contributions of respondent and operant conditioning to the occurrence and treatment of pain behavior in burned children are discussed.     

BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF CHRONIC FOOD REFUSAL IN HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

In this study, we examined the eating behavior of four handicapped children, none of whom exhibited self-feeding skills. All children had a history of food refusal and were nutritionally at risk; one child received all nourishment by way of a gastrostomy tube. Baseline data taken during mealtimes indicated that all children accepted very little food, expelled food frequently, and engaged in a number of disruptive behaviors. Treatments consisted of one or more of the following contingent events: social praise, access to preferred foods, brief periods of toy play, and forced feeding. Results of multiple-baseline and reversal designs showed marked behavioral improvement for each child and increases in the amount of food consumed. Further improvements were noted at follow-up, which ranged from 7 to 30 months posttreatment.     

Characteristics of women health professionals with vertical,lateral, and stationary career plans

Young female health professionals' (N=139) career plans were classified as vertical (V) if they aspired to advancement, lateral (L) or stationary (S) if they lacked advancement ambitions. Ls planned intensification by gaining further qualifications. Hypotheses concerning the (1) life contingencies, (2) work attitudes, and (3) personalities of the groups were tested. Most support was found for hypothesis 3. Ls and Vs had higher masculinity scores than Ss, and Ls were more androgynous. More Ls planned specialization and had already undertaken further studies. Ls and Vs attached more importance to freedom at work; groups did not differ on other work attitudes nor in their life contingencies (social roles and conflicts), although Ls and Vs specified role conflicts and more coping strategies. The results supported Lewin and Olesen's conceptualization of lateralness, but indicated that it is distinct from stationary patterns.     

Networking in a day treatment center for adolescents

Based on two years of clinical experience with eighty different client networks, the authors (1) offer a model of network orientation and assessment which has proven effective in lowering client resistance to a, network intervention; (2) present two strategies for clinical intervention with families using partial network assemblies; and (3) discuss the supportive relationship between family and network therapy with accompanying case illustrations.     

Kinetic subjective contours

Continuous changes in spatially separated figures can evoke perception of subjective contours and figures in physically homogeneous space between them. This occurs when all of the interruptions in the objectively present patterns (inducing elements) can be seen as caused by a unitary figure partly occluding them. Two experiments demonstrated and explored this phenomenon. In both, displays were presented to subjects under three conditions. In one condition, stationary inducing elements were shown as they would be interrupted by a figure rotating in front of them. In another condition, the background and inducing elements rotated, with interruptions occurring as if a stationary figure were in front. In a third condition, observers were shown 10 static views taken from the figure-rotation sequence for each display. Subjects consistently perceived unitary central figures with well-defined forms and clear edges from pattern changes given by figure movement and background movement. As with static subjective figures, kinetic subjective figures appear in front of, partly occluding, the inducing elements. These percepts form rapidly, and they depend upon temporal relations rather than upon information present in momentary views. Subjects occasionally reported subjective edges or a central figure in the stationary displays in Experiment 1, but not at all in Experiment 2, in which guessing tendencies were reduced by more specific instructions. The existence of kinetic subjective contours suggests that the visual system readily utilizes relationships among occlusion events separated in space and time. The minimum conditions for contour perception require neither information all along an edge nor simultaneous specification of the edge at two or more places.     

Effects and aftereffects of continuous noise and computation work on risk and effort choices

Choices between risk and effort, in a format (COPE) previously shown to reflect fatigue, were obtained from subjects in noise or quiet. Both sexes were used in the experiment, half the subjects working at the Norinder arithmetic task while half rested. The COPE test took a computational form, offering choices between digit lists of differing lengths in which target sums were imbedded. The baseline choice levels were established in quiet, but half the subjects were exposed to noise during the posttest. As previously found in comparable conditions, the Norinder task showed no effect of noise. Pretest-posttest comparisons on the COPE test showed that exposure to noise, like computation work, had the predicted effect of decreasing the choice of high-probability, high-effort alternatives. The presence of noise during posttest had no overall effect on risk effort choices, although there were indications that changes of any kind in the test conditions might be a factor. The data seem difficult to explain in an arousal framework, but may be simply interpreted as showing that exposure to noise produces real fatigue.     

Relations between visceral and behavioral function in men at bedrest

Multiple physiological measurements as well as a self-assessment of arousal was made in eight men on the first, third, and fifth days of bedrest. On the third day, additional measurements of performance on memory and dexterity tasks were made. Univariate analysis did not reveal any physiological variable to either predict subsequent performance well or to co-vary acutely with it; however, self-rating scores did prove to be useful predictors of subsequent performance. Principal components analysis suggested an“alertness” factor comprised of physiological measures as well as selfratings which helped in predicting better performance. Although the individual patterns of correlations between variables on each of the three test days was variable, even more variability between subjects was found on the performance testing day. We believe this effect of behavioral activation may be due to the injection of common, slow temporal trends into many of the different data sets.     

Moral judgment: Theory and research on differences between males and females

That men and women differ in their moral orientations is a commonly held stereotype. The view that men are morally superior can be found in the writings of philosophers and psychologists (most notably Freud). Recently, Carol Gilligan (Harvard Educational Review, 1977, 47, 431–517) has entered this discussion bringing to it what she calls a “different [woman's] voice.” In this paper, the theory of an ethic of care is described and contrasted with Kohlberg's morality of justice. The empirical support for Gilligan's claim that men and women differ in their moral orientations is examined and a discussion of Gilligan's contribution to an integrated theory of morality is offered.