Strengths-Based Assessment of Children with SED: Consistency of Reporting by Teachers and Parents

Parents and teachers rated the strengths of a group of 20 children diagnosed as having serious emotional disturbance. The degree of consistency between different informants' reports was examined to determine whether certain items and scales on the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS) were more appropriately answered by different sources or in different situations, and whether there were method effects associated with each group. A repeated measures ANOVA and correlations between the informants on each subscale demonstrated significant convergent and discriminant validity as well as possible assessment biases. Results also supported the need for developing separate norms for different informants.     

Law and regulation of preemployment inquiries

State and federal regulation of impermissible preemployment inquiries has become increasingly pervasive. Twenty-two states publish specific-question lists on many topics. They include questions asked in interviews, and items in advertisements, application forms, bio-data forms, and psychological and attitude inventories. The regulations, laws, court and agency decisions, and relevant literature are reviewed, and the impact of such regulations is discussed.     

Analysis of public verbal feedback as a staff management procedure

We evaluated public verbal feedback as a potentially effective and efficient means of improving institutional staff performance. Following baseline observations of the self-help training conducted by three groups of direct care staff with clients who had profound mental retardation, verbal feedback was presented publicly to individual staff during routine staff meetings. The feedback addressed the (in)frequency of the staffs training endeavors and required only a few minutes to present. Results indicated that each group of staff increased their client training when the public verbal feedback was provided. Probes of client self-help skills indicated that as the frequency of staff-conducted training increased, client skill acquisition improved. Generalization measures indicated that staff increased only those work behaviors for which they received feedback. Results are discussed regarding the efficiency of public verbal feedback as a means of improving staff performance, as well as the need for research to continue expanding and refining a technology of staff management.     

An algebraic treatment of the barwise compactness theory

A theorem on the extendability of certain subsets of a Boolean algebra to ultrafilters which preserve countably many infinite meets (generalizing Rasiowa-Sikorski) is used to pinpoint the mechanism of the Barwise proof in a way which bypasses the set theoretical elaborations.During the preparation of this work the second author was a postdoctoral visitor at the C. R. M. supported by a National Council of Canada operating grant.     

Proxemics,locus of control,anxiety, and type of movement in emotionally disturbed and normal boys

In order to determine the interpersonal distancing requirements for emotionally disturbed and normal children and in order to investigate the relationship of locus of control and anxiety to interpersonal space, 20 emotionally disturbed and 20 normal boys were randomly required to approach an object person and to let the object person approach them until they felt uncomfortable. Results indicated that emotionally disturbed boys required more space than normals; that subjects would approach closer than they would allow the object person to approach them; and that externals required more space than internals. There were no significant differences between high and low anxious subjects, nor between emotionally disturbed children diagnostically classified as overanxious reaction and those with other diagnosis. Finally, neither anxiety nor locus of control explained the significant normal—emotionally disturbed differences in space requirements. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed as well as the relationship between the present and previous research.     

The automatic recording of aggression in pigeons: A comparison of two methods with live targets

Three pigeons were exposed to a fixed-time response independent food-delivery schedule and a live target pigeon restrained in a holder mounted on a spring and microswitch assembly. This common method of recording aggression was compared with a photocell system, and both were evaluated by observation of video-tape recordings. Dependent variables included the number of interfood intervals with an attack, attacks per minute, and attack duration. The photocell proved more reliable than the microswitch and correlated highly with observations of both the number of interfood intervals with an attack for three subjects and attack duration for two. Neither apparatus provided accurate information about the rate of attacks. The microswitch apparatus was not sensitive to changes in the subject’s attack topography, while both recording devices were susceptible to activation by responses in the attacking pigeon other than discrete pecks or physical blows. In view of these findings, attacks per minute may not be an appropriate measure of aggression in studies using such devices.