Staff Management By Behavioral Contracting

Employee performance has been shown to be improved by reinforcement procedures that are determined by the supervisor. The present study used behavioral contracting between an employee and her supervisor to structure their discussion in arriving at mutually acceptable performance standards and reinforcers. A multiple baseline design across responses was used with an employee who conducted training sessions with persons who are mentally retarded in a large institution. The results showed an improvement of the specific employee behaviors for which behavioral contracting was arranged for the duration of the contracted reinforcement. Behavioral contracting may be useful as a structured method of achieving employee-supervisor agreements in employee motivation programs.     

The reduction of parent-youth problems by reciprocity counseling

A reciprocity counseling program had previously been used for adult marital problems and for child classroom problems. The present study extended the method to youth problems in the home and community with 29 youths aged 6–16, including 12 teenagers. The principal features of the components of the program were reciprocal behavioral contracting, positive communication training and self-correction. The number of problems reported by the parents and youths decreased by about 75% after counseling vs little or no decrease for the wait-listed controls. The ratings of problem severity were also reduced and endured at the 6-month follow-up.     

A reinforcement plus interruption method of eliminating behavioral stereotypy of profoundly retarded persons

Stereotyped responses have been shown to be eliminated by an overcorrection-reinforcement program. The present study evaluated response-interruption as an alternative to the overcorrection component with seven profoundly retarded adults. During the baseline praise condition, stereotypy occurred during 66% of the observations for the seven profoundly retarded adults but decreased to less than one response per half hour in a mean of two sessions of individual training. In the subsequent class situation, stereotypy was reduced to less than 5% on the first day of class, to less than 1% by the fourth day and less than one stereotypy per hour after the third day. The interruption method seems preferable to postural overcorrection because of its apparent and relative nonaversiveness.     

Dry bed: A rapid method of eliminating bedwetting (enuresis) of the retarded

Bedwetting has been a major and unsolved problem for the severely retarded. To solve this problem, an intensive training program was designed similar to a recently developed program for daytime toilet training of the retarded. Some distinctive features of the new procedure were frequent positive reinforcement for correct toileting, a negative reinforcer for accidents, positive practice in night time toileting, increased level of urination by forcing drinking, immediate detection of correct and incorrect toileting, and Positive Practice for accidents. Of twelve retarded adult bedwetters, the average bedwetter required only one night of intensive training. Several days of apparatus monitoring were used following the training but proved unnecessary for two-thirds of the trainees. Accidents were reduced by about 85 % during the first week after training, and almost entirely (95%) during the fifth week with no relapse during a 3 month follow-up. No reduction of accidents resulted when the same bedwetters were given a control procedure that provided no positive or negative reactions other than the sounding of an alarm upon bedwetting. The Dry-Bed procedure appears to be a very rapid solution to the problem of enuresis among the retarded and may be applicable to other difficult populations and also to normals.     

An experimental application of a social reinforcement approach to the problem of job-finding

The current conception of the employment process is that positions become available, are publicized, and are filled by the most qualified job seekers. An alternative conception is proposed that social factors play a major role in the process and that job finding can be analyzed as an exchange of social reinforcers in which the first behavioral step is to locate job openings. A questionnaire survey of 120 jobs found that two-thirds of the job leads came from friends or relatives who: (1) usually knew of a specific opening (63%); (2) were themselves employed by the hiring firm (71%); and (3) actively influenced the hiring process (53%). An experimental evaluation was made of an "Information-Reward" advertisement procedure for motivating community residents to report unpublicized openings. It was found that the Information-Reward procedure produced 10 times as many job leads and eight times as many placements as a noreward control advertisement. These findings represent a first step toward a much needed technology of job finding that is based on experimental evidence and support the notion that the employment process depends on factors unrelated to work skills.     

The elimination of autistic self-stimulatory behavior by overcorrection

No method is in general usage and of demonstrated effectiveness in eliminating the self-stimulatory behaviors of retardates and autistics. An Overcorrection rationale was used to develop such a method. The Overcorrection procedures consisted of a period of practice in the correct mode of the behavior contingent upon self-stimulatory behavior. The procedures were applied in a behavioral day-care program to three retarded children and one autistic child who exhibited object-mouthing, hand-mouthing, head-weaving and hand-clapping. For some behaviors, comparisons were made between the Overcorrection procedure and several alternative procedures, such as physical punishment by a slap, reinforcement for nonself-stimulatory behavior, a distasteful solution painted on the hand of a hand-mouther, and free reinforcement. The Overcorrection procedures eliminated the self-stimulatory behaviors of all four children in tutorial sessions and during the entire school day and were more effective than the alternative procedures in eliminating self-stimulation. The Overcorrection procedures appear to be rapid, enduring, and effective methods of eliminating self-stimulatory behavior.     

A rapid method of toilet training the institutionalized retarded

Incontinence is a major unsolved problem in the institutional care of the profoundly retarded. A reinforcement and social analysis of incontinence was used to develop a procedure that would rapidly toilet train retardates and motivate them to remain continent during the day in their ward setting. Nine profoundly retarded adults were given intensive training (median of four days per patient), the distinctive features of which were artificially increasing the frequency of urinations, positive reinforcement of correct toileting but a delay for "accidents", use of new automatic apparatus for signalling elimination, shaping of independent toileting, cleanliness training, and staff reinforcement procedures. Incontinence was reduced immediately by about 90% and eventually decreased to near-zero. These results indicate the present procedure is an effective, rapid, enduring, and administratively feasible solution to the problem of incontinence of the institutionalized retarded.     

The effects of punishment intensity on squirrel monkeys

Responses of squirrel monkeys were maintained by a variable-interval schedule of food reinforcement. Concurrently, punishment consisting of a brief electric shock followed each response. As has been found for pigeons and rats, punishment did not produce extreme, all-or-none reactions. By gradually increasing the punishment intensity it was possible to produce response rates intermediate to no suppression and complete suppression. Similarly, the moment-to-moment response rate was free of extreme fluctuations. A “warm-up” effect occurred in which the punished responses were especially suppressed during the initial part of a session. The pre-punishment performance was negatively accelerated within a session, and punishment reduced the degree of negative acceleration. When punishment was discontinued, responding recovered immediately except when suppression had been complete or prolonged. When the punishment intensity was decreased gradually, more suppression resulted at a given intensity than when intensity was increased gradually. This suggests a “behavioral inertia” effect wherein behavior at a new punishment intensity is biased toward the behavior at the previous value. A corollary generalization is that the larger the change in intensity, the less the behavior at the new value will be biased toward the behavior at the previous value.