A revised teacher rating scale for Reactive and Proactive Aggression

A teacher rating scale of reactive aggression, proactive aggression, and covert antisocial behavior was evaluated in a normative sample of third- to fifth-grade predominantly white lower middle class boys (N= 186). Factor analysis revealed independent and internally consistent Reactive Aggression (six reactive items), and Proactive Aggression (five proactive items, five covert items) factors. Although the factors were intercorrelated (r= .67), and each factor was significantly correlated with negative peer social status (r= .26 for each, controlling for grade), the independence of the factors was supported by the unique relation of Reactive Aggression with in-school detentions (r= .31), controlling for Proactive Aggression and grade. These results supported the reliability and validity of Reactive and Proactive Aggression as rated by teachers, which should facilitate further research of these constructs. This research was supported in part by an NIMH First Award to Marc Atkins (MH4682), and support from an NICHD Mental Retardation Research Center Core Center Grant (DH26979). Portions of these data were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, Sarasota, Florida, in February 1992. The authors are grateful to Paul McDermott and Tom Power for editorial comments, and to Gail Apfel, principal, and the teachers, staff, and students of Stonehurst Elementary School for their enthusiastic participation in this research.     

A Model Faculty Peer Review Process for Counselor Education Programs

The authors describe a counselor education faculty peer review model that addresses the professional functioning of each member of the counselor education faculty regardless of her or his rank, salary, status, or administrative responsibilities.     

Counselling Requirements in a Voluntary Advice Agency

Voluntary advice agencies are frequently used by people during times of their lives when they are under emotional pressure: for example, following marital disruption, bereavement or redundancy. In order to assess the nature of personal problems and the psychological effects of such life-events, one such advice agency was observed. From a detailed analysis of a sample of client contacts, it was concluded that there was a well-defined need for counselling to be available in addition to the provision of practical and legal information. Using an action-research strategy, the training of existing volunteer staff was extended, and recommendations were outlined for the recruitment of counsel ling-trained staff.     

Stimulus change as a factor in response maintenance with free food available.

Rats bar pressed for food on a reinforcement schedule in which every response was reinforced, even though a dish of pellets was present. Initially, auditory and visual stimuli accompanied response-produced food presentation. With stimulus feedback as an added consequence of bar pressing, responding was maintained in the presence of free food; without stimulus feedback, responding decreased to a low level. Auditory feedback maintained slightly more responding than did visual feedback, and both together maintained more responding than did either separately. Almost no responding occurred when the only consequence of bar pressing was stimulus feedback. The data indicated conditioned and sensory reinforcement effects of response-produced stimulus feedback.     

Control of behavior by an establishing stimulus

Seventeen pigeons were exposed to a three-key discrete-trial procedure in which a peck on the lit center key produced food if, and only if, the left keylight was lit. The center key was illuminated by a peck on the lit right key. Of interest was whether subjects pecked the right key before or after the response-independent onset of the left keylight. Pecks on the right key after left-keylight onset suggest control of behavior by the left keylight—an establishing stimulus. In three experiments, the strength of center-keylight onset as conditioned reinforcer for a response on the right key was manipulated by altering the size of the reduction in time to food delivery correlated with its onset. Control of pigeons' key pecks by onset of the left keylight occurred on more trials per session when the center keylight was a relatively weak conditioned reinforcer and on fewer trials per session when the center keylight was a relatively strong condtioned reinforcer. Differences across conditions in the degree of control by onset of the establishing stimulus were greatest when changes in conditioned reinforcer strength occurred relatively frequently and were signaled. The results provide evidence of the function of an establishing stimulus.     

Improved real-time control on the apple by mimicking an on-board 60-Hz clock

By delivering the vertical synch pulse to the maskable interrupt, it is possible to supply the Apple with a functional on-board 60-Hz clock that operates virtually independently of the CPU. This modification makes it easier to program more complex experiments involving independent control over stimulus exposure duration and the timing of response latency.     

Habituation under stress: shocked mice show nonassociative learning in a T-maze

Conflicting predictions of reinforcement and neophobia-arousal theories were evaluated in a simple choice task. Four groups of C57BL/6J mice were administered daily two-trial tests in a uniform T-maze for 10 consecutive days. For three groups, the contingencies of footshock treatments were manipulated to reinforce alternation, perseveration, or both. A control group that was not administered footshock alternated, but all three groups that were stressed perseverated more and more across tests, despite the differences in reinforcement contingencies. These results are inconsistent with the predictions of reinforcement theory but consistent with the view that stressed or aroused animals are neophobic and use nonassociative learning (habituation) to distinguish between novel and familiar alternatives.